Colour Your Living Room with a Red Sofa

With sofas being such a central focus of the home, a lot of people increasingly want them to also make a visual statement. One effective and stylish way to do that is with a sofa in a bold colour like red.

Warm, inviting and cosy, red is seen as an assertive and energetic choice that represents courage, passion and physical endeavour. It’s no wonder it’s such a popular colour for logos, team strips and cars, but it seems to often be overlooked as an option for furniture, which is a shame as all of those characteristics make it a brilliant way to bring some intensity to your design scheme.

Modern Red Sofas

Because it’s already so eye-catching, red can work best on sofas that have relatively clean lines and a simple silhouette. That, of course, makes it perfectly suited to modern sofa designs, whether it’s something relatively slim and stylish, or a bold statement piece with wide arms and blocky cushions that really makes the most of the colour choice.

Galloway in Varese Cranberry

Red Leather Sofas

Whether it’s a modern style, or a more classic design like the Chesterfield or Edward leather sofas, leather is a great medium for a red sofa. It looks timeless, working just as well in a modern space as in an Edwardian drawing room and, as the leather ages and cracks, it tempers the bold red colour with a patina that develops character and simply looks better and better as time goes on.

How to decorate around a red sofa

With a strong colour choice like red, it’s important to carefully select the rest of your furnishings and design choices to avoid clashes or being overwhelmed by different colours or even the same shade of red.

Black can go brilliantly with red, but a room that is all red and black can look very dark and even unwelcoming. Instead, use black sparingly for, perhaps, a couple of cushions or a lampshade. For larger areas, use dark grey or charcoal tones to avoid making the effect too heavy.

Another colour that can work well with red, and is easier to use in larger quantities, is beige; a soft and neutral colour, it offsets the red nicely but without creating the start contrast that white or light cream shades can do. Beige can work well for bigger areas like wallpaper or paint, as well as carpets or rugs.

Where you might need more complex patterns and a range of colours, such as rugs, go for mainly quite neutral tones like grey or pale blue, with just a bit of red that compliments the shade of the sofa and doesn’t clash with it. It’s usually better to avoid too much green, either in rugs or other furnishings like scatter cushions, or you can accidentally get a very Christmassy effect, however lighter green and especially lime green can work if you want a very contemporary and eye-catching feel.

Whatever you choose, it’s worth getting swatches of sofa fabrics, paints or wallpapers, and other soft furnishings before making any big purchasing decisions to avoid clashes. A red-based colour scheme can work brilliantly, but it has to be selected with care. Get that right, though, and you will end up with an interior design that is elegant and distinctive.